


School Blues

by airamcg



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen, School Life, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2016-06-12
Packaged: 2018-07-14 14:00:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7174688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/airamcg/pseuds/airamcg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beacon Academy trains elite Huntsmen and Huntresses, sure, but a combat school is still primarily a <i>school</i>. </p><p>--a collection of fluffy one-shots about Team RWBY dealing with stuff like rankings, failing grades, and other student things</p><p>1. "First" Impressions - Weiss was sure she ranked top of their year. She knew who her rivals were and where they stood in the rankings. Nothing should have surprised her about the term rankings. <i>Nothing.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	School Blues

 

 

During her first day in Beacon Academy, Weiss Schnee believed she had the worst team in the whole school, no, in all of Remnant. Sure, they had managed to take on a giant Nevermore together during initiation, but things were different inside the classroom. Beacon was a combat _school_ after all, and a school for only the best at that.

So after getting a whistle blown into her ear at the crack of dawn and then running late for their first class, Weiss took the time to observe her teammates between jotting down lecture notes. Yang Xiao Long was the same buffoon in the classroom as she was in the Emerald Forest—never taking anything seriously and then whispering horrible puns to anyone within earshot. Blake Belladonna seemed attentive to Professor Port’s rambling lecture, but a closer look revealed that she was covertly reading trashy romance novels under the table. And Ruby Rose, their fearless leader for the next four years, was picking her nose while goofing off with her sister.

Many things happened afterwards, changing those initial impressions she had. The more Weiss learned about her teammates, the more respect she had towards them. Throughout the term, however, nothing much had changed in their classroom behavior, except perhaps for Ruby seeming to take her leadership position more seriously. Blake still read her novels during class, and Yang’s notes were comprised of bad jokes and doodles.

As for Weiss herself, she was sure to be among the top, if not _the_ topmost student, of their year. She knew who her rivals were and had a good sense of where the notable students in her year stood in the rankings. She had religiously kept up with her studies, and had trained her body more than she ever had in Atlas. Nothing should have surprised her when Professor Goodwitch released the term rankings.

Nothing should have surprised her, and yet...

“Uh, Weiss? Are you okay?” Ruby poked at her shoulder. They were standing in front of the bulletin board where the rankings were posted, at Weiss’s insistence. “You’ve been staring at the board for ten minutes now. I mean, I know it’s cool your name’s there and all, but…”

“How?!” Weiss grabbed Ruby at the shoulders, startling a squeak from the younger girl. “How did… When… How is this even _possible_?”

Ruby rubbed the back of her head, confusion all over her face. “It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. I mean, you do study really hard and—“

“Not me, you doofus! That!” A thin finger sharply pointed at the name underneath _Schnee, Weiss_. “She never studies. _Never_. There’s something fishy going on here, and I’m going to find out what.”

“I’m sure nothing 'fishy' is going on,” mumbled Ruby, wilting under her partner’s piercing blue eyes. “And, uh, is it just me or does that line sound kinda racist?”

Ignoring the last bit, Weiss declared, “That’s it, I’m confronting her. Where is she right now?”

“Well, it’s lunch ti—”

Before Ruby could even finish talking, Weiss stormed off like a mad woman with a mission, her body moving on its own towards the cafeteria. She kicked open the doors and spotted her objective on their usual table. The fiend had her back towards Weiss, laughing with Nora about something as if she had no care in the world. The nerve! Cheaters had no right to be that carefree.

“Heya, Weiss! What's up?” chirped Nora, but her ever-present smile faded under Weiss’s cold glare.

Slowly, the subject of Weiss’s ire and other confusing emotions turned around to face her, golden locks billowing about as soft lilac eyes met her icy blue ones. Full lips parted slightly as words spilled from her eloquent mouth, “Whoa, what’s got your panties in a bunch this time, Ice Queen?”

“You!”

“Me?”

“You cheater!” screamed Weiss, her icy glare dropping a few more degrees. She grabbed Yang by the lapels of her uniform jacket, pulling until they were nose to nose. “I don’t know what kind of nefarious things you’ve been hiding from me all this time, but don’t think you’re going to get away with it!”

“What cheating? We aren’t even dating!” Yang tried to pry Weiss’s hands off her, but they held firmly in place. Glyphs might have been involved. Either way, Yang seemed right about to crack, her lilac eyes swiveling around frantically until they zeroed in on the area behind Weiss. “Ruby! What’s Weiss going on about?”

“I dunno.” Ruby shrugged noncommittally, as if seeing her partner attempting to strangle her sister was nothing new. “We were just looking at the bulletin board, and then she was throwing a fit over your ranking all of a sudden.”

“Uh, why?” Yang cautiously glanced at Weiss’s still angry face, before returning her gaze to her sister. “What’s my ranking?”

“First place, as usual. And you’re tied with Weiss!”

Yang couldn’t help smiling at that, but there was still the problem of her teammate gripping at her jacket. “So what’s your problem, Ice Queen? Sharing the top spot not good enough for you?”

“That’s not the point! What I want to know is—” Weiss paused when her partner’s words sunk in, prompting her to let go of Yang. Then she turned around so fast, her sidetail whipped Ruby right in the face. “What did you mean ‘as usual’?”

The sisters exchanged looks and then shrugged in sync.

“We thought you already knew,” said Ruby. “I mean, you do have notes on everyone.”

“Yeah, those were pretty extensive,” Yang added. “You even had stuff on team CFVY, and they’re not even in our year.”

“Knew? Knew _what_?” Weiss glared at the sisters, who were exchanging looks and shrugging at each other again, as if it was some secret body language code between them. Eventually, it was Ruby who answered.

“That Yang was one of the top students in Signal?”

Weiss pursed her lips and furrowed her brows, incredulous lines creasing her expression. “But she wasn’t even in the top 20 graduates. I checked.”

“That’s because Signal has stupid rules.” Yang rolled her eyes as she spoke. “Graduating students were ranked based on their grades throughout all the years they studied. I had a lot of problems when I started out and barely passed the first few years. That really brought down my final standing.”

“So if you were ranked solely on the final year…?”

“I would’ve been valedictorian easily.”

“No way.” Weiss took a step back, her mouth hanging open in shock. “No, that has got to be a lie.”

“Ask anyone who came from Signal, if you don’t believe me.”

“But you’re always partying and horsing around! And you _never_ study.”

“You never _see_ me study. That doesn’t mean I never do.” Yang winked at Weiss at that, earning her a glower.

“I never see her study either,” Ruby chimed in. “She likes being sneaky about it.”

“I just don’t want you to know the secrets to my success, sis.”

Weiss was just about to say something about that being highly suspicious behavior and perhaps something about cheating again when someone else barged in on the conversation.

“Hi guys. Did you see the term rankings yet?” Blake plopped down next to Yang, where Nora previously sat but had since disappeared during Weiss’s confrontation. She had a tray full of tuna sandwiches, salmon roe salad, and other fish-based entrees. She seemed elated about it.

Seeing an opportunity, Weiss pulled Blake away from the conniving sisters, which also meant pulling her away from the delicious lunch. It was unfortunate, but sacrifices had to be made. Weiss needed an ally in this ordeal. “Blake, if I ever told you Yang was ranked first in our year, would you believe me?“

Blake glanced at Yang and seemed to think it over before answering, “Sure. Yang’s pretty smart, despite appearances.”

“Are you saying I look stupid, Blakey?" Yang gasped, looking mock scandalized at her partner. "How could you!”

“See?” Blake turned back to Weiss. “Fast on the uptake, that one.”

“But she never studies!”

“I don’t think she needs to,” Blake said with a shrug. “She’s always napping on her books during our study sessions, but she knows all of the right answers when I quiz her.”

Weiss grabbed Blake by the shoulders so that she could search deeply into her teammate’s amber eyes and perhaps discern the truth of the matter. “Blake, are you telling me _Yang Xiao Long_ is some kind of _genius_?”

Blake shrugged again. “It wouldn’t be the strangest thing about our team.”

Weiss opened her mouth to retort, but no words came out. She struggled to say something, _anything_ , for a few minutes; but the longer she processed what she had just heard, the more of the fight was taken out of her. Eventually, she sunk down on the bench between Blake and Yang, defeat painted all over her demeanor.

“You okay, Weiss?” Ruby was crouching in front of her, silver eyes peering up worriedly.

Weiss stared blankly at her teammates' concerned faces, wondering just how many more crazy reveals she could take before the term was over. Like, maybe the next thing she'd find out was that one of them was secretly a Faunus—maybe even a White Fang member! Or maybe one of them was some descendant of legendary warriors destined to save Remnant from Grimm. Hah! Like any of that would ever be true.

She shook her head, dismissing her thoughts away. At least there was one thing she was sure at that moment: She had the best worst team ever.

 

 

**END.**

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Thank you so much for reading my fic! If it's not too much trouble, I would love to hear what you think about it. Comments and constructive criticism are always welcome!
> 
> I wrote this oneshot mainly because I've grown weary of fics where Yang or Ruby is portrayed as dumb. I mean, c'mon, Ruby is explicitly said to be a weapons-maniac who designed and engineered her own crazy awesome scythe! That implies skills in Remnant's equivalent of STEM subjects. And Yang being a top student like Weiss may be a bit of a stretch, but I've met people in university who were crazy party goers even on school nights, who often attended classes with hangovers, but still graduated with top honors. Some people just have all that, it seems.


End file.
